Mark Herring explains gay marriage shift

New Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring says his decision to challenge his state’s ban on gay marriage, rather than defend it on behalf of the state, is part of an evolution in his views on the subject.

Herring announced his decision to side with plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the state’s ban on Thursday, a reversal from the position of his predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli.

“I had voted against marriage equality eight years ago back in 2006 even though at the time I was speaking out against discrimination and ways to end discrimination and I was wrong for not applying it to marriage,” Herring told NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Thursday. “I saw very soon after that how that hurt a lot of people and it was very painful for a lot of people.”

Herring said he spoke with constituents, co-workers and his family and has “come to see the issue very differently now.” His children played a role in his changing views, he said.

“They were instructive about the relationships that people have, and they were helpful in getting me to see a different perspective,” Herring said. “They pressed me for the position I had taken and made me continue to question it, and I just came to the conclusion that it was the right thing to do.”

Herring won a narrow election against his Republican challenger in November, defeating him by just 907 votes out of more than 2 million cast. It was the first time Democrats swept the top statewide positions on the ballot since 1969.

Although Virginia’s gay marriage ban was put in place by Virginia voters, Herring says he has concluded it’s unconstitutional and it is his job to oppose it.

“As attorney general I cannot and will not defend laws that violate Virginians’ rights,” Herring said. That’s what I have pledged over and over to do, is to put the law and put Virginians first. … It’s about what the law requires here, and we have concluded, I have concluded, that the law here is unconstitutional, and I think the Supreme Court … would find the law unconstitutional.”

Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law denying benefits to same-sex couples and on a procedural decision effectively upheld a lower court’s ruling that a California ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Key to that case was that state officials similarly declined to defend the law in court.

“Attorney General Herring joins the growing legal and public consensus that barriers to marriage for lesbian and gay couples do not protect anyone and only harm Virginia families,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said. “This courageous stand on behalf of the Commonwealth plants Virginia firmly on the right side of history.”